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Corvette 60 years on: Fast facts

DETROIT, MICHIGAN - Sixty years ago (January 17, 2013), spectators lined up at New York City’s posh Park Avenue, waiting to get a glimpse of a ground-breaking vehicle on display at the General Motors’ Motorama show - the Chevrolet Corvette.

In 2013 the Corvette returns marking a historic milestone with the 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray.

The Corvette Stingray debuted earlier at the 2013 North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

60 YEARS OF CORVETTES

Celebrate sixty-years of this iconic American ride with some fun facts:

The Corvette was originally championed by GM’s legendary styling director Harley Earl, who insisted there was room for an American entry in the European-dominated sports car market. It was also his idea for Corvette to have a glass fibre body.

Corvette was named for a small and fast class of naval ships.

The 1953 Corvette had a base price of $3,498 and offered only two options – a heater for $91 and an AM radio for $145.

Every Corvette model has used innovative materials, from fibreglass in 1953 to advanced carbon-nano technology and carbon fibre on the 2014 Corvette Stingray.

A V8 engine was first available in 1955. That year, it was selected by 90% of customers. After that, all Corvettes featured strictly V-8 power.

LONGEST-RUNNING SPORTS CAR

The Stingray name was first used for a prototype race car, the design of which influenced the second-generation Corvette that debuted in 1963. The 1963 Corvette Sting Ray split-window coupe has since been called one of the most beautiful and influential designs in automotive history.

Corvette’s legacy of mainstreaming technology previously reserved for high-end luxury cars includes the introduction of fuel injection in 1957, independent rear suspension in 1963, four-wheel disc brakes in 1965, anti-lock brakes in 1986 and a tyre-pressure monitoring system in 1989.

Corvette is the longest-running, continually produced sports car in the world.

Nearly 2-million Chevrolet Corvettes have been sold since it went on sale in 1953 and in 2012, it accounted for approximately one-third of all sports car sales in America.

Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is now one of the world's largest car brands, doing business in more than 140 countries and selling more than 4-million cars and trucks a year. Chevrolet provides customers with fuel-efficient vehicles that feature spirited performance, expressive design, and high quality.

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